Editorial: Veto the first step, now give campaign bill some teeth

Monday

Aug 31, 2009 at 12:01 AMAug 31, 2009 at 11:46 AM

Hard to say what happened between late May and last Thursday, between Gov. Pat Quinn labeling as "landmark" the campaign funding reform legislation - House Bill 7 - he endorsed last spring and his taking his veto pen to it now. In that not-even-three-month span Quinn went from "the best we can do at this time" to suggesting Illinois can do better.

Hard to say what happened between late May and last Thursday, between Gov. Pat Quinn labeling as "landmark" the campaign funding reform legislation - House Bill 7 - he endorsed last spring and his taking his veto pen to it now. In that not-even-three-month span Quinn went from "the best we can do at this time" to suggesting Illinois can do better.

But we'll take it, so long as the governor and the four legislative leaders stick to their word and come up with an improved version by the veto session in October. Negotiations are ongoing, but as far as we're concerned, they can just copy the recommendations of the Quinn-appointed Illinois Reform Commission and be right where they need to be.

In fact Illinois government can do a lot better, as it has stood nearly alone nationally in putting no brakes whatsoever on campaign contributions and spending while simultaneously becoming synonymous nationally with political scandal. Never more so than now, with indicted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich allegedly taking "pay to play" to an unprecedented level, including charges that he literally tried to sell Illinois' vacant U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder.

As such, the timing had never seemed better for cleaning up Illinois, including not only campaign funding reforms - ideally mirroring federal caps, including more immediate and full disclosure of contributions - but an end to the egregious gerrymandering that has made competitive races a rarity, as well as permitting voter recall for corrupt/incompetent public officials. Alas, we didn't think it possible, but the Legislature and governor took a pass on all that last spring, making a bad situation worse by effectively approving an Incumbents Protection Act that actually strengthened the grip of the political leaders.

So what happened? Well, some of the political dynamics changed, arguably not the least of which being the decision of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan - Speaker of the House Mike Madigan's daughter - not to seek the governor's office. Reporting last spring suggested that Quinn had caved on campaign reforms after getting a concession from Madigan the father - also the state's Democratic Party chairman - that he would not take sides in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Quinn is seeking that nomination.

Then again, maybe we should look at this in the best light and choose to believe that Illinois' elected leaders have finally seen the light, finally recognized the terrible toll corruption was taking on the Land of Lincoln's reputation, finally accepted that there was no political margin in resisting reforms any longer. Or maybe they just finally listened to constituents who had their fill of apologizing for the state in which they lived.

Whatever the case, this veto is a positive development, perhaps even a remarkable one, considering HB7 passed with veto-proof majorities in both chambers but now is recognized as inadequate by the leaders who shepherded it through.

Oh, we've been around too long to declare victory just yet. We remain unconvinced that Mike Madigan's conversion is complete, and he's the most powerful guy in Springfield. We've generally been impressed with Senate President John Cullerton, who's saying a lot of the right things. The question is whether he can deliver. And conveniently, none of these reforms will be implemented in time for the 2010 election.

Still, this is the first progress we can point to in a while in Illinois, whose citizens have suffered through the longest drought of good government that we can remember. We'll be watching closely in October.